April 21st, 2008
Old posts
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04.21.08Kiddyland
D
uring my trip to Japan I’m ashamed to say I actually ended up going to Kiddyland 3 times, I loved the place so much - try to imagine someone dashing around each floor of a store filling a basket with cute things like his life depends on it, and you’ll get a pretty good picture of how I looked when I was in Kiddyland. I can’t even begin to describe the amount of excitement it gave me.
Kiddyland, for those of you that don’t know, which is probably most is basically a very big toy shop that’s is in Shibuya, however it being a Japanese toy shop it is eight floors tall and filled with the cutest goods imaginable it has everything from sanrio goods, character goods, stationary to urban vinyl, collectable figures and very tempting expensive dolls on the top floor.
Anyone that is a child at heart would probably react the same way I did when I first entered it, which involved a lot of rushing over to things and claiming how cute they were and then filling up baskets. You have to pay on every floor though, which can be annoying as opposed to paying for everything at the end each floor has its own check outs for products on that specific floor. Each floor however is a delight, each one being set out for different things. There’s one for sanrio and san-x, one for other character goods and stationary, one that has licca dolls and kids toys, and for disney goods, and the most exciting one with blythe and urban vinyl.
Each floor also has gashapon machines relating to the goods that are on the floor as well, and seems as while I was in japan I became rather addicted to those little plastic balls full of joy I ended up getting at least one gashapon from each floor, on the top floor I ended up getting quite a few.Needless to say I do describe this shop as heaven, at least it is either heaven or a culture shock depending on who you are. If you like the cute, you’ll love Kiddyland and if you’re not used to Japanese cuteness you’ll probably be able to find at least one character or product in the store that you’ll fall in love with and have to have.
I couldn’t list everything I bought on my visits to Kiddyland, as it would probably take up half the post but to sum up I bought a whole bag full of stationary, stickers and pens, many many Rilakkuma (relax bear) products (he’s my favourite), various Robin and his 100 friends cute things, a little re-ment, another blythe doll (even though I promised myself I wouldn’t), and what ended up being the bottom of my bag full of gashapon.I’d like to say that Kiddyland hit my ‘cuteness peak’ when I was in Japan, but I could have went there another 5 times and still got excited, I think what is so special about it to someone like me that’s wanted to go to Japan since they were 12, or for someone that likes cute Japanese products is that it is full to the rafters of items that you’d pay double for on ebay, and each of these floors -
the first time you visit is like a little surprise that you feel building up inside your tummy like when you get given a present and it’s all wrapped up and you’re wondering what is inside and when you open it it is way more than you expected. Kiddyland is just like that, or at least to me it was even if it was to the detriment of my wallet.
